Communication networks typically include network elements, such as routers, switches, or gateways, which transfer or switch data from one or more sources to one or more destinations. A network element may process data units. A data unit may correspond to a frame, a packet, or an optical data unit. For example, the network element may receive a data unit from a source device (or another network element), may determine a destination for the data unit, and may send an original or a modified data unit to a destination device (or another network element).
Before a particular device is allowed to send data units to another device or to receive data units from the other device via a network, the particular device may need to be authenticated, by a network element, to access the network. Different devices may require different methods of authentication. Configuring a network element to perform authentication for different kinds of devices may be quite challenging.